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Online complaint form

Online complaint form

Information about your landlord

Name of landlord(Required)

Start typing the name of your landlord and select from the list.

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Is Landlord a member?

Yes

Your landlord is a registered member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

Your landlord is not a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

We only consider complaints about landlords that are members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

Help if your landlord isn't registered (opens in a new tab)

If you live in or are applying for a property owned or managed by a local authority, please note there are some issues we are unable to consider. For example:

homelessness applications
statutory duty to provide homelessness advice and, in some cases, accommodation
the operation of a council’s housing allocation scheme and policies, including assessments of priority or banding given to applicants applying for a home in its borough
other services the council provides, for example housing benefit applications and social care

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman may be able to help you (opens in a new tab)

Is your complaint issue for the Housing Ombudsman Service?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

We will not be able to consider a complaint about the issues you are raising.

Find out who can use the Housing Ombudsman Service(opens in a new tab)

About your tenancy

We only consider complaints if you are, or have been, in a landlord/tenant relationship with a landlord that is a member of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

This includes:

those who have a lease, tenancy, license to occupy, service agreement or other arrangement to occupy premises owned or managed by a member
those who are applying for a property owned or managed by a member of the Scheme
an ex-occupier - must have had a legal relationship with the landlord at the time of the complaint

In some cases, we can accept a complaint from a representative of any of the above, who is authorised by them to make a complaint on their behalf.

Are you the leaseholder or tenant named on the agreement?(Required)

Yes

Are you representing the tenant or leaseholder?(Required)

Yes

We can only accept a complaint from a named tenant or leaseholder, or a representative that is authorised to act on their behalf.

Bringing a complaint for somebody else (opens in a new tab)

We need consent from the tenant or leaseholder to authorise a representative to bring a complaint to the service on their behalf.

Bringing a complaint for somebody else (opens in a new tab)

Legal proceedings

We will not consider complaints that, in the Ombudsman’s opinion, are or have been subject to legal proceedings. We may also not consider a complaint where:

the subject matter of the complaint is currently or has previously been considered by a court
the Ombudsman considers it quicker, fairer, more reasonable or more effective to seek a remedy through the courts, other tribunal or procedure

Have the issues raised in your complaint been subject to court proceedings?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

If possible, please provide the following information.

Has there been a stamped claim form?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

Do you have the form?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

Please upload a copy of your stamped claim form on the supporting evidence page at the end of this form.

Has there been a court decision?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

The complaints process

A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the standard of service, actions, or lack of action by your landlord. A complaint is not the same as making a service request.

Landlords must have a 2-stage complaints process. When you complain to your landlord, it must acknowledge a complaint at stage 1 of its process within 5 working days and supply a written response within 10 working days from the date of acknowledgment.

Have you made a complaint to your landlord?(Required)

Yes

The Ombudsman can only consider a complaint which has been through both stages of a landlord's complaint process.

If you have reported an issue to your landlord and you do not think it has taken appropriate action or responded in a suitable way, you can make a complaint to your landlord to let it know what you think has gone wrong.

How to complain to your landlord (opens in a new tab)

Has your landlord responded to the complaint?(Required)

Yes

What date did you make the complaint to your landlord?(Required)

For example, 27 03 2024

Day

Month

Year

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stage one dates overdue

Yes

Your landlord still has time to respond to the complaint.

You must allow your landlord 15 working days to provide a complaint response in writing.

Waiting for a complaint response (opens in a new tab)

You should have received a complaint response from your landlord.

We can help you get a complaint response if we have evidence that your landlord is not following its complaints process.

We will need to see a copy of the complaint you made to your landlord. You can upload this on the supporting evidence page at the end of this form.

Do you need help getting a response from your landlord?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

Continue with this form, we will ask you to upload a copy of the complaint you made to your landlord.

You should contact your landlord directly if it has not provided a complaint response.

Information about the complaint

We will now ask for further information about your complaint.

Landlords must have a 2-stage complaints process and we can only consider a complaint that has been through both stages of the process.

If your landlord has provided a stage 1 response and you remain dissatisfied, you can request to escalate the complaint to stage 2.

The stage 2 response is sometimes referred to as the landlord's final response.

Has your landlord provided a stage 2 response to the complaint?(Required)

Yes

Have you made a request to escalate the complaint to stage 2 of your landlords’ complaints process?(Required)

Yes

We can only consider a complaint that has been through both stages of a landlords' complaints process.

If your landlord has provided a stage1 response and you remain dissatisfied, you can request to escalate the complaint to stage 2.

In your request to escalate the complaint, you should let your landlord know why you do not agree with the actions or decisions set out in its stage 1 response and what you think it should do to put things right.

Your landlord has 20 working days to provide a stage 2 response from the date you make the request.

How to escalate your complaint to stage 2 (opens in a new tab)

Do you still need help from the Housing Ombudsman with your complaint?(Required)

Yes

We can help you get a response from your landlord where we have evidence that it is not following its complaints process.

We will ask to see a copy of the complaint you made to your landlord. This will help us understand if the landlord is not following its complaints process.

In some cases, we can make orders for the landlord to respond to you.

What date did you request to escalate the complaint to stage 2 of your landlords’ complaints process?(Required)

For example, 27 03 2024

Day

Month

Year

Hidden

stage two dates overdue

Yes

Your landlord still has time to respond to the complaint.

You must allow your landlord 25 working days to provide a complaint response in writing.

Information about the stage 2 response (opens in a new tab)

You should have received a stage 2 complaint response from your landlord.

We can help you get a complaint response if we have evidence that your landlord is not following its complaints process.

We will need to see a copy of the stage 1 complaint response you received and the request you made to escalate the complaint to stage 2.

Do you need help getting a stage 2 response from your landlord?(Required)

Yes

Don't know

Continue with this form, we will ask you to upload a copy of the complaint you made to your landlord.

You should contact your landlord directly if it has not provided a complaint response.

Help escalating your complaint (opens in a new tab)

Details about the stage 2 response

We will now ask for further information about your stage 2 response.

Please note, we cannot consider a complaint where the stage 2 complaint response is dated more than 12 months ago.

Enter the date of your stage 2 complaint response.(Required)

For example, 27 03 2024

Day

Month

Year

Hidden

stage two complaint response

Yes

Your stage 2 complaint response is dated more than 12 months ago.

We cannot consider a complaint where the stage 2 response is dated more than 12 months ago.

If you are trying to refer a complaint to us where the stage 2 response is dated more than 12 months ago, you need to explain why you have not brought the complaint to us sooner. Please note, it is unlikely we will investigate a complaint where the stage 2 response is over 12 months old.(Required)

Your stage 2 complaint response is dated less than 12 months ago.

Have all issues raised in your complaint been covered in the landlord’s stage 2 complaint response?(Required)

Yes

Do you wish to refer your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman for investigation?(Required)

Yes

If you do not wish to refer your complaint to this service for investigation but would still like advice from the Housing Ombudsman about your complaint, please explain why.

Do you still need support from the Housing Ombudsman Service?(Required)

Yes

About your complaint

We will now ask you to provide more information about your complaint.

My complaint is about(Required)

Has your landlord provided you with a complaint reference number?(Required)

Yes

Please provide the reference number(Required)

When did you make a complaint to your landlord?(Required)

For example, 27 03 2024

Day

Month

Year

How have the issues raised in your complaint affected you or people living in your household?(Required)

What action has your landlord taken to put things right since you first made the complaint?(Required)

Action from your landlord could include:

contacted you
a visit to your home
inspection/survey carried out
completed some/all of the repairs
apologised to you

What would you like your landlord to do to resolve your complaint?(Required)

Where possible we will work with you and your landlord to resolve a dispute.

We may make orders or recommendations to the landlord to put things right, based on our findings. It is helpful to let us know what you would like your landlord to do to put things right.

This could mean telling the landlord to:

pay compensation
apologise
review its policies and procedures
complete any outstanding repairs

About the property the complaint relates to

Address that the complaint relates to(Required)

Address line 1 Address line 2 (optional) Town or city County (optional) Postcode

Property type(Required)

You selected other, please tell us the property type.(Required)

Please select your lease or tenancy type?(Required)

You selected other, please tell us the tenancy type.(Required)

How we will contact you

Please select your preferred method of contact.(Required)

Phone

Post

Preferred phone number(Required)

Alternative phone number

Email address(Required)

Is your current address different from the one that the complaint relates to?(Required)

Yes

Address(Required)

Address line 1 Address line 2 (optional) Town or city County (optional) Postcode

Do you require translation services?(Required)

Yes

Please select the translation language required.(Required)

Do you require any reasonable adjustments to the way we communicate with you?(Required)

Yes

Please tell us how we can assist you further:(Required)

About representative

What is your relationship with complainant?(Required)

What is the reason for the resident having representation?(Required)

Title(Required)

First name(Required)

Last name(Required)

Pronouns

Preferred name

Your address(Required)

Address line 1 Address line 2 (optional) Town or city County (optional) Postcode

Preferred phone number(Required)

Alternative phone number

Email address(Required)

Is this a group complaint?(Required)

Yes

Is the representative to be the primary point of contact?(Required)

Yes

Complainant details

Title(Required)

First name(Required)

Last name(Required)

Pronouns

Preferred name

About the household

Who lives in the household?(Required)

1 person

Couple, no children

Couple, non-dependent children only

Couple, dependent children

Lone parent, non-dependent children only

Lone parent, dependent children

2 or more families

Lone person sharing with other lone persons

Monitoring information

Information provided in this section of the form will be used for monitoring purposes only. The answers you give will be stored on your complaint record, however caseworkers working on your complaint will not access this data.

If there is information relevant to the handling of your complaint which you wish caseworkers to be aware of, you should consider recording it within the other sections of this form.

Further information about how the Housing Ombudsman Service handles your personal data can be found in our privacy notice. (opens in a new tab)

Ethnicity: How would you describe your ethnic origin?(Required)

Gender: What is your sex?(Required)

Sexuality: Which of the following best describes your sexual orientation?(Required)

Marital status: Are you married or in a civil partnership?(Required)

Religion: Please indicate your religion, practice or belief.(Required)

What is your age group?(Required)

Disability: Do you consider yourself to have a disability?(Required)

Your last chance to save the form

This is your last chance to save the form for later.

The next page is the form upload page where you can submit your supporting evidence and you cannot save beyond this point.

Once you continue to the next page, you will be asked to upload the supporting documents to your complaint. Then you can continue to the final page where you have the chance to review your answers and submit the form to the Housing Ombudsman for review.

Save for later

If you do not have the forms ready to upload, you can select the save for later option at the bottom of this page. Once you save the form, your answers will be saved for 14 days, and you will receive an email with a link to access the saved form.

After 14 days, if you have not returned to complete the form and submitted it to the Housing Ombudsman, the information you have completed on the form will be deleted and you will be required to start again.

What do I need to upload?

The evidence you provide will depend on where you are in the complaints process.

If you have completed both stages of your landlords' complaints process, please provide:

the landlord's stage 1 complaint response
the landlord's stage 2 complaint response

If you have not received a stage 2/final response, please provide:

the landlord's stage 1 complaint response
a copy of your stage 2 complaint

If you have not received a stage 1 response, please provide:

a copy of the the complaint you made to the landlord

If you have told us that your complaint has been subject to court proceedings and you have your stamped claim form, please upload the document for review. Please note, we only accept the file types: pdf, doc, docx, jpg, png.

You can upload up to 4 documents and the maximum total file size is 5 MB.

Supporting evidence

Please upload a copy of your complaint and the stage 1 and stage 2 response from your landlord. If you have not received a stage2/final response, please provide a copy of your stage 2 complaint.

Upload your supporting documents

Drop files here or

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, png, Max. file size: 5 MB, Max. files: 4.

Maximum file size - 5 mega bytes.

Phone

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